Chardá Bell-Fontenot recall, La Mesa-Spring Valley School District, California (2021)
| La Mesa-Spring Valley School District recall |
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| Recall overview Political recall efforts, 2021 Recalls in California California recall laws School board recalls Recall reports |
An effort to recall Chardá Bell-Fontenot from her position as the Area 3 representative on the La Mesa-Spring Valley School District Board of Education in California did not go to a vote in 2021. Recall supporters did not file petitions by the deadline on September 21, 2021.[1][2]
The recall effort started after Bell-Fontenot cast the lone dissenting vote at a board meeting on February 23, 2021, against a motion to reopen schools in a hybrid capacity in April 2021. At the time of the vote, schools in the district were using online instruction in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.[3]
Bell-Fontenot said she did not want to vote for a plan that would force teachers to return to classrooms possibly before they had a chance to get vaccinated against COVID-19. “That seems like a very white supremacist ideology to force people to comply and conform without thinking about all of the intersecting factors and barriers that exist for all families,” Bell-Fontenot said at the meeting.[3]
Recall supporters said they were upset both by Bell-Fontenot's vote and her statement at the meeting.[3] The San Diego County Democratic Party published a resolution announcing their opposition to the recall effort on April 20, 2021.[4]
To read about other recall efforts related to the coronavirus and government responses to the pandemic, click here.
Recall supporters
Carl DeMaio, a former San Diego city councilor and chairman of the group Reform California, started the recall effort. DeMaio unsuccessfully ran in the Republican primary for California's 50th Congressional District on March 3, 2020. “School board members that decide to put politics over the priorities of our children, the interest of our children, they must be confronted with public pressure, and if necessary with recalls, that’s our only recourse,” DeMaio said.[3][5]
“Frankly, it’s a smear to suggest anyone who wants to reopen schools somehow is a white supremacist,” DeMaio said.[5]
On their recall website, supporters of the effort listed the following reasons for recall:[6]
| “ | Chardá Bell-Fontenot opposed re-opening schools. Chardá Bell-Fontenot refuses to accept the science that schools are safe and can be reopened for our students. In a recent board meeting, she claimed that parents and board members don't know how schools work and they don't have to give out ANY DATE to reopen. Chardá Bell-Fontenot created a nasty, hostile work environment. Chardá Bell-Fontenot doesn't support students and families. |
” |
Recall opponents
Bell-Fontenot released a statement through her lawyer, saying, "The public has the right to pursue a recall just as every student has the right to equal protection from the pandemic when going back to in-person instruction. I am confident that the voters also want every child to be equally protected when returning to school."[5]
Richard Barrera, president of the San Diego Unified School District school board, published an opinion piece in the Times of San Diego in support of Bell-Fontenot, saying, "[S]ome families in our public schools are at much higher risk of contracting the virus, and suffering severe consequences from it, than others. Chardá, an African American parent who works professionally as a health educator supporting young families, intimately understands this reality."[8]
The San Diego County Democratic Party published the following resolution announcing their opposition to the recall effort on April 20, 2021.[4]
| “ | WHEREAS a recall is an off cycle electoral event where the decision is made by smaller, less diverse electorates and disenfranchises BIPOC voters and working families; and recent off cycle elections produced dismally low turnout including: the 79th Assembly District Special Election with turnout at 21.2%, the Senate District 30 special election with 12.6% turnout; and the last San Diego City Council Special Election which produced 35.5% turnout.
WHEREAS four Democratic women leaders in San Diego are being targeted for recall in San Diego County - Martha Alvarado, Dr. Jen Campbell, Chardá Bell-Fontenot, and Cori Schumacher - all of whom were previously endorsed by the San Diego County Democratic Party and identify as either women of color or LGBTQ+, WHEREAS the bylaws of the California Democratic Party dictate automatic opposition to the recall of any Democratic elected official, unless a 60% majority votes otherwise and the recall in San Diego City Council District 2 would be a distraction and detriment to the Party’s efforts to defend against recalls that are being organized by right-wing Republicans and Trump mega-donors in an effort to overturn Democratic electoral victories and undermine California’s COVID recovery; NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the San Diego County Democratic Party unequivocally opposes the recall campaigns against the following elected officials: Vista Unified School District Trustee Martha Alvarado, La Mesa-Spring Valley School District Trustee Chardá Bell-Fontenot, San Diego City Council Member Dr. Jen Campbel, and Carlsbad City Council Member Cori Schumacher; BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the San Diego County Democratic Party affirms that except in extreme circumstances that the time to hold elected officials accountable at the ballot box is in regularly scheduled primary or general elections where the most voters and voices are able to be included and that this resolution does not imply the Democratic Party’s position on any race that is to be considered in the future and solely applies to the recall attempts against the four aforementioned elected officials.[7] |
” |
Path to the ballot
- See also: Laws governing recall in California
The San Diego County Registrar of Voters approved the recall petition for circulation.[9] To get the recall on the ballot, recall supporters would have had to submit 12,990 signatures by September 21, 2021.[2]
Ballotpedia covered 35 coronavirus-related recall efforts against 94 officials in 2022, accounting for 13% of recalls that year. This is a decrease from both 2020 and 2021. COVID-related recalls accounted for 37% of all recall efforts in both 2020 and 2021. In 2020, there were 87 COVID-related recalls against 89 officials, and in 2021, there were 131 against 214 officials.
The chart below compares coronavirus-related recalls to recalls for all other reasons in 2020, 2021, and 2022.
2021 recall efforts
- See also: School board recalls
Ballotpedia tracked 92 school board recall efforts against 237 board members in 2021. Recall elections against 17 board members were held in 2021. The school board recall success rate was 0.42%.
The chart below details the status of 2021 recall efforts by individual school board member.
See also
- La Mesa-Spring Valley School District, California
- Recall campaigns in California
- Political recall efforts, 2021
- School board recalls
External links
- Search Google News for this topic
- La Mesa-Spring Valley School District
- San Diego County Registrar of Voters
Footnotes
- ↑ Abbey Smith, “Email communication with Antonia Hutzell, Marketing & Public Relations Coordinator for the San Diego County Registrar of Voters," September 23, 2021
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Voice of San Diego, "School Boards Are Losing it," July 13, 2021
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 KPBS, "La Mesa-Spring Valley School Board Member Faces Racist Threats And Recall," March 5, 2021
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 San Diego County Democratic Party, "Resolution Against the Recall Elections," April 20, 2021
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Fox 5 San Diego, "Recall effort launched over school board member’s controversial comments," March 4, 2021
- ↑ School Board Recall, "Recall School Board Member Chardá Bell-Fontenot," accessed June 14, 2021
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Times of San Diego, "Opinion: La Mesa-Spring Valley’s Chardá Bell Fontenot Echoes Many Parents About School Reopening Challenges," March 14, 2021
- ↑ Abbey Smith, “Email communication with Antonia Hutzell, Marketing & Public Relations Coordinator for the San Diego County Registrar of Voters," June 8, 2021
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